


brand new day

by daisylincs



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Agents of Birthdays, Aunt Daisy gives me LIFE, Aunt-Niece Relationship, Babysitting, Canon Compliant, Date Night, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fun and Happiness, Gift Fic, Happy Birthday Lora!!, Post-Finale, Spoilers for the Agents of SHIELD Series Finale, What they deserve, and FS totally deserves a break, birthday fic, cool aunt, everyone is happy, just happiness, tired parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:48:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29808642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisylincs/pseuds/daisylincs
Summary: Though they love Alya with everything they have, and always will, sometimes Fitz and Jemma just need a break - and, fortunately, their resident Cool Aunt Daisy knows exactly when to step in.
Relationships: Alya Fitz & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Comments: 6
Kudos: 48





	brand new day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Would_die_for_fitzsimmons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Would_die_for_fitzsimmons/gifts).



> Dear Lora,
> 
> Oh my gosh, love, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I hope that you have had an absobloodylutely spiffing day today, and one where you didn't have to whip out too many brollies 😝 Really though, I hope that you've had a positively marvellous time!
> 
> Love, I truly do think that you're an absolutely _fab_ person, and I'm always very full of beans after a good old chinwag with you. Yes, even after a session of relentlessly taking the mickey 🤣 It's just brill to fangirl with you about music (!!! 😍😍) and Fitzsimmons! Not to over-egg the pudding, but you're honestly one of the most lovely fandom people I've had the honour to meet. 💕
> 
> So today, darling, I'm on it like a car bonnet to make you the best fandom birthday present I possibly can 🤗🤗🤗 Thank you so much for being your wonderful self!! That's what really takes the biscuit for me, and, really, I'm dead chuffed to be able to call myself your fandom (mum) friend. Love you so very much indeed!!!
> 
> Now, tickety-boo - let's do this!! Happiest of the haps to you once again ;) 🥰

"Mama, can you come help me pick my clothes for today, please?" 

Jemma sat up slowly in bed, her hair a rumpled mess on her pillow and her gaze still bleary with sleep. 

Alya, though, was wide awake, and obviously had been for a while. 

"Clothes, please, Mama," she persisted, her voice far too chipper for so early in the morning. 

Now, Jemma had always used to be a morning person herself, too - rolling her eyes in exasperation at Fitz's dramatics over their 8am classes at SciOps _("8am, Fitz, that's late! You went to school a whole hour earlier")_ and badgering him to get up at that time on the weekends too _(because then we actually have_ time _to work through everything we said we would, Fitz.)_

Since becoming a parent, though, that had all changed. Every second of sleep was precious. 

Unfortunately, though, she and Fitz had managed to create the chirpiest little early bird in imaginable history. 

_("You asked for this, Jem," Fitz liked to tease her mercilessly. "You always wanted me to get up so early, now it's coming back to bite you.")_

She wanted to roll her eyes, but… it was true. She kind of _had_ asked for it. 

Ah, karma. 

And the worst part was, she never even used to believe in karma - _"there isn't any scientific evidence of it, Fitz, and you know it."_

Her views on that had changed pretty much the minute she had stepped onto the Bus, though, and it was honestly as if the universe _liked_ reminding her of that one time she had said that. Karma kept hitting her, and hitting her hard - from curses to time and space to countless missions. 

But that was all behind her now. The only karma she had to deal with _now_ was an adorable, blue-eyed little monkey with an exhausting thirst for knowledge. (Where she could have gotten that from, of course, Jemma had _no_ idea.) 

Speaking of her little monkey, though - 

_"Mama!_ You can't stay in bed all day, you have to come help me pick my clothes, and then you promised me you would show me more about the fishies' mackrymolecules, and -" 

"I'm coming, sweetie," she said, pressing her fingers over her eyes for a moment before pulling a tired smile to her lips. "Just a moment." 

Heaving herself out of bed, she stepped into the bathroom, splashing cold water onto her face and glaring at her reflection. _What is wrong with you? Alya is the best thing that's ever happened to you, the brightest star in your entire sky, and you -_

Just wanted to bury her head in the covers and take the day off. 

Even just thinking that sent such a stab of guilt shooting through her that she had never grabbed her dressing-gown faster, tugging it on and rushing back to her daughter in record time. 

"Come on, sweetness," she said, taking Alya's hand and beginning to guide her towards her room, right across from Fitz and Jemma's. 

Alya, never one to meekly follow along, tightened her grip on Jemma's hand and pulled excitably, skipping a few steps ahead. 

With a small smile, Jemma let herself be pulled, watching the bob of her daughter's blond hair with pride. 

She had helped create that. Somehow, by the greatest miracle known to all of science, she and Fitz had created that. 

She and Fitz had created this perfect, beautiful, intelligent, curious, bubbly, busy _\- so busy -_ little girl, and… 

Drat, she was just circling back to "busy" now, her vision beginning to blur as Alya's happy bounces became, at least to her mind, faster and faster. 

Really, _where_ did she get the energy? 

Jemma hadn't even realised she had sagged against the doorway until Alya gave her hand another tug, admonishing her with a plaintively accusing, _"Mama,_ you're still sleepy-ing, you're not supposed to be sleepy-ing when you're out of bed!" 

"You're quite right, monkey," Jemma agreed, giving herself a resolute shake. _Get it together, Simmons, you're better than that._

For some reason, though, that relatively simple thought gave her pause - even after all those years on the Zephyr, and their second (and third for family) wedding, she still saw herself as _Simmons._

Legally, she _was_ still a Simmons, although technically she could just as easily be Fitz-Simmons too. 

_Or Simmons-Fitz,_ she thought, her lips quirking up at the memory. 

A rush of nostalgia hit her hard just then - and not because of her short marriage to the other-Fitz, as it might have been a couple of years ago (fortunately, they had managed to work through that on those long Zephyr years. They _had_ had time, after all.) 

No, this nostalgia was about, quite simply, _her and Fitz._

It wasn't that anything had gone wrong between them, quite the contrary in fact - she had just realised with a peculiar kind of wistfulness that she couldn't remember the last time she and Fitz had had an evening just to _themselves._

On the Zephyr, there had been a couple, but they had been few and far between, the threat of The Mission always hanging over their heads. Come to think of it, Enoch had always been somewhere in the background even on those nights. 

Once Alya had been born, there had been more nights off from work, obviously - but she wouldn't call those "nights to themselves," not by any stretch of the words. 

Parenting was a full-time job, and just as firing - if not _more_ so - than (to put it in Daisy's words) Fitzsimmonsing. 

God, but she missed Fitzsimmonsing. She missed the effortless way she and Fitz could play off each other in the lab, she missed the sparkle in his eyes when he told a joke only she would understand, she missed the smell of his cardigan when she snuggled into his shoulder as they watched their umpteenth Doctor Who rerun. 

She missed it all _so much_ that it made her heart twist in her chest, and a sudden and wholly surprising lump rise up in her throat. 

She and Fitz still had an _excellent_ relationship - stronger than ever, in fact, she felt completely confident in saying that - but it just wasn't the _same._

And in that moment, she found herself wishing, wishing with all her heart, that it could all _be_ the same again. 

Even if it was just for one night, she wanted to feel like one-half of _Fitzsimmons_ again, to have her entire focus polarised by Leo Fitz - dielectrically polarised, if you would. 

And as though something out there - karma's nicer little brother, perhaps? - had read her mind, the doorbell rang, its chime trilling loud and clear through the cottage. 

Alya froze where she stood, stopping mid-deliberation about the ultimate question of red shirt vs blue to strain her ears for the familiar welcoming message. 

_"Identity verified: Daisy Johnson,"_ their built-in security system greeted (because, come on, they were _Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons_ , they weren't just going to live in a standard, boring cottage.) 

Alya dropped the two shirts, her eyes going huge. "Aunt Daisy!" she shrieked, her face the picture of delight as she flung herself past Jemma and tore down the stairs. 

Jemma followed almost just as fast, nearly tripping over her messily-tied dressing-gown in her haste to go greet her best friend/sister. 

Even _Fitz_ succeeded in dragging himself out of bed, meeting Jemma half-way to the kitchen with sleep-mussed hair and a bewildered look in his blue eyes - “did the systems just say _Daisy’s_ here?! Isn’t she supposed to be, you know, on Mars, gallivanting with that boyfriend on hers?” 

“Obviously not anymore, unless of course that planet-wide identification system of yours is broken,” she teased, bumping his hip playfully with hers as she passed.

She revelled in his indignant splutters behind her as she stepped out of the kitchen, her heart instantly melting at the sight in front of her. 

Alya, overcome with excitement upon seeing her favourite aunt, had launched herself into Daisy’s arms - and Daisy, obviously having caught her mid-jump, was now spinning her round and round, lifting her high and holding her there for a second with a gentle quake before catching her securely again.

Jemma hadn’t realised she had made a soft cooing noise until Fitz said behind her, his voice thick with emotion, “I know, right.” 

Touched, she leaned back against him, and he wrapped his arms around her from behind, holding her tenderly against him. He rested his head on top of hers, and she placed her hands on top of his, tilting her head back a little and pillowing it against his shoulder. 

They stayed like that for a moment, just watching Daisy and Alya exuberantly greet each other, and listening to both of their ecstatic laughter.

Neither of them said anything, but then again, neither of them needed to.

This moment was perfect just as it was.

Eventually, though, it had to come to an end, Daisy lowering Alya to the ground with a regretful smile and a promise to make her fly again “just a little later, kay, monkey?” 

Once Alya had finished nodding enthusiastically, she turned to Fitz and Jemma, her smile softening with affection. “Well, you two look cozy,” she said, holding out her arms for a hug.

Jemma stepped into them immediately, holding her best friend close and breathing in the still-familiar smell of her matcha-mint shampoo.

“It’s so good to see you!” she said, only slightly muffled by Daisy’s shoulder and hair. Pulling away, she looked her friend up and down critically, beaming at what she saw. “You look radiant, Dais.” 

And she really did - whatever she and Sousa were off doing in space, it suited her. She was almost _glowing_ with happiness, and there was an air of deep, settled contentment about her, a kind of easy, confidence reassurance that Jemma hadn’t ever seen on her before.

“Aww, thanks,” Daisy said, her eyes crinkling with smile lines as she pushed a stray curl of hair behind her ear. She quirked her eyebrows slightly as she looked at Jemma, though, eyeing her untidy pajama-dressing gown combination with a wry smile. “I can’t exactly say the same, though - you look exhausted. Cute, but exhausted.” 

“Thanks,” Jemma said dryly, stepping out of her friend’s embrace to let her hug Fitz.

It sent a little tickle of pleasure coursing up and down her body to note that there was no awkwardness whatsoever in their hug, and both of their smiles were wholly genuine. 

That hard conversation they had had just after Fitz and Jemma’s official retirement? It had paid off. 

“Not that we’re not happy to see you,” Fitz began when he and Daisy had quite finished hugging, “but what are you doinghere?” 

Daisy snorted a laugh, putting her hands on her hips, but she looked far more amused than offended. “Well, you both looked pretty tired in our last team call - happy, yeah, but tired - and I thought to myself that the moment I got a chance to get back to Earth for a bit, I’d come here and see if you guys didn’t want a little break.” 

Jemma’s jaw dropped, and she was seized by the urge to throw her arms around Daisy all over again. Had her friend picked up mind-reading somewhere in space, too?!

But -

“Oh, we can’t possibly burden you with something like that, you must have so much to do,” she said, waving a hand expansively around the cottage. “We don’t want to be responsible for taking up your time!” 

Beside her, Fitz nodded his agreement, his arms folded in consideration. 

Daisy took one look at the pair of them and rolled her eyes. “Guys, _please,”_ she scoffed, her tone so heavy with sarcasm that Jemma half-expected May to materialise and scold her protégé about it. “First of all: when has doing _anything_ for the two of you ever been a burden? And second of all - this is my _goddaughter_ we’re talking about, spending time with her will always be one of my favourite things in the world.” 

Jemma’s heart expanded with warmth again, and she could feel her resolve wavering. 

She _had_ been wanting exactly this so hard this morning, hadn’t she? And if Daisy was really _offering -_

“You’re sure?” Fitz checked, voicing her thoughts exactly. His tone was cautious, but already filled with a deep gratitude that spoke of too many late nights and crowded days trying to entertain a hyper-intelligent five-year-old. 

“Of _course_ I’m sure,” Daisy said in a tone of voice that she must have learned directly from May - the kind that brooked no argument. “You know what? Let’s do this right now. You two, go into that cutesy little breakfast nook of yours and plan out a day entirely for the two of you. I’ll stay here with Alya, and we’ll -” she glanced around the room for inspiration “- build the biggest pillow fort this cottage has ever seen!” 

From her position clinging to Daisy’s leg, Alya gasped out loud, her blue eyes widening with what could only be described as utter adoration. 

And that, honestly, was what sealed the deal for Jemma. 

“You know what? That sounds absolutely _amazing,”_ she said, reaching for Fitz’s hand and tightening her fingers around his. 

He grinned down at her, and she knew him more than well enough to recognise the bright excitement sparkling in his gaze. “Let’s do this.” 

//

As soon as the door closed behind Fitz and Jemma, Daisy turned to Alya and clapped her hands. “Right, monkey pie,” she said, holding out her arms for Alya to jump into, which the little girl promptly did. “Can you show me where your mom keeps the blankets in this place?” 

“Yes, Aunt Daisy!” Alya crowed, clapping her hands gleefully and decisively directing Daisy to a cupboard between her bedroom and Fitz and Jemma’s. 

Plopping the little girl down on the floor, Daisy surveyed their options. It was Jemma, so of course the little cottage was well-prepared for all kinds of weather - from light summer wraps to thick, drowningly fluffy woollen coverlets.

“Can I give you two or three to carry, star-eyes?” she asked, crouching down to smile at Alya. 

Giving her an arch look (or, well, as much of an arch look as a five-year-old could muster) Alya reached into the cupboard and took out a pile of thin blankets herself. “You bet,” she said, saluting with the pile held high above her head.

Daisy had to laugh. “Oh, you’ve got your dad’s spirit, don’t you?” 

“Mama says that I have my Uncle Hunter’s, too, though she doesn’t know how that’s biologically possible,” Alya said with a solemn nod.

Daisy had to stifle her loud snort in the giant woolly blanket she hastily reached over to grab, sneezing once or twice when she accidentally managed to inhale a feather from the pillows piled up neatly nearby. 

“Uncle Hunter,” she said, only spluttering slightly - to her credit, she thought. “Yes, that is, um, definitely… something.”

“That’s exactly what Daddy says,” Alya agreed sagely, and, _great,_ now Daisy had to fight off another fit of laughter. Oh, God, she could just _see_ this exchange between Fitz and Jemma, complete with an innocent, blue-eyed Alya beaming up at them both.

“So, uh, what movie do you want to watch tonight?” she asked in an attempt to both change the subject and keep her sanity more or less intact. “Mulan, Frozen, Moana…?” 

She trailed off, surprised, when she saw that Alya was blinking up at her in complete bemusement. “What are those, Aunt Daisy?” 

And, well, now Daisy’s jaw had just hit the _floor._

“Your mom and dad haven’t shown you any Disney movies?” she asked faintly, hardly able to believe her ears.

Still looking puzzled, Alya shook her head, frowning at Daisy over her pile of blankets. “What’s Dis-ney?” 

For a full second, Daisy just _gaped_ at her, genuinely unable to believe what she was hearing. This from the daughter of two of the biggest Doctor Who nerds she had ever known!

“Do you ever watch TV with your mom and dad?” she asked, because, dear God, if they _didn’t,_ she might have to find a way to hack into and block Jemma’s weekly emails to May, because that was _way_ too strict.

“Yes!” Alya exclaimed, her eyes lighting up as she bounced up and down, clapping her hands. “We watch doc’mentries about the Ama-zon, and mackrymolecules, and di-e-lec-tric pollyrisation.” 

Daisy squinted at her, shifting the stack of blankets so that she could put her hands on her hips. “But no Disney movies?” 

Looking confused again, Alya shook her head.

And… okay. However this had happened, there was _clearly_ a gaping hole in Alya’s education.

And as her favourite-aunt-slash-godmother, it was obviously Daisy’s duty to fill it. 

“Sweetheart, come with me, and prepare to have your whole _life_ changed,” Daisy told her niece, and she meant it.

Alya, lighting up immediately, grabbed her hand, and, aided by a rippling quake courtesy of one of Daisy’s more brilliant ideas, they more or less _flew_ down the stairs. 

When they got to the living room, the first thing Daisy did was send their whole giant pile of blankets soaring onto the couch with another broad quake. Whooping, Alya chased them, throwing herself on top of the pile and shrieking when Daisy sent another, smaller, quake at the lot of them, causing them to twist and tangle her up.

They played that game for a good ten minutes; Alya scrambling around in the heap of blankets and Daisy using her powers to send them flying and looping to catch her up over and over again. 

Eventually, though, Daisy lowered her hand, unable to stop her wide grin when Alya’s newly-frizzed little blond head popped up from behind the felled blankets.

“No, no, don’t look so betrayed, we’re going to do something even better now,” Daisy said cajolingly, beckoning for Alya to come to her arms again. “We’re going to make some popcorn.” 

Alya’s eyes went as wide as saucers, and for a moment there, Daisy seriously considered hauling Jemma’s ass onto one of May’s deluxe training mats, retired or no. If Alya didn’t know what _popcorn_ was --

But Alya’s eyes, she saw, were wide for an entirely different reason this time. _Excitement._ “We’re allowed to have _popcorn?”_ she breathed. 

“Of course we’re allowed to have popcorn!” Daisy exclaimed, already making her way towards the kitchen.

Alya raced to catch up with her, tugging at her hand. “Is it the sing-you-larrity?” she asked, her eyes bright but serious as she looked up at Daisy.

Daisy blinked. “The singularity? Why would it be the singularity?” 

“Because we’re only allowed to have popcorn on the singularity,” Alya explained with that little-girl impatience of _why are these adults so slow._

“That’s your mama’s rule, isn’t it?” Daisy asked, stopping to crouch down and look Alya in the eyes. 

Smiling a little shyly, Alya nodded, twisting slightly from side to side.

Daisy squeezed her hand to reassure her that everything was okay, then gave her a long, very obvious wink. “Well, your mama isn’t here now, so we’re doing this by _my_ rules. And my rules say that we’re allowed to have popcorn… whenever we want!” 

Alya made a shocked, delighted squeaking sound, and the next thing Daisy knew, she was being enveloped in a pair of tiny, warm arms. “You’re my favouritest aunt in the whole entire _world,”_ Alya gushed, and Daisy swore she could see the stars she was named after in the little girl’s eyes.

“That’s very sweet of you,” she said, laughing it off to hide how deeply touched she was. (Favouritest aunt? That wasn’t a title she had _ever_ held before, and all she could say was that it was an honour. An honour, and a pleasure.) 

“Let’s go make that popcorn, yeah?” she asked before she could get completely overwhelmed with emotion here in Fitz and Jemma’s passage, in front of Fitz and Jemma’s little daughter.

God, she loved this little girl so much - if called to, she would die for her in a second.

But honestly? She’d much rather make popcorn with her. 

And that was exactly what she did. 

Once she and Alya had finished buttering and salting two giant bowls of popcorn - _“two,_ Aunt Daisy! Aren’t our stomachs going to go explodey?” - she took them back into the living room, where she made a clumsy but effective fort for them with a few well-placed blanket quakes.

Then she got out her laptop, flipping it open and propping it up against the far wall of the fort. “What about Frozen first?”

Alya’s eyes lit up. “Are we going to be learning more about ice floes and poley bears, Aunt Daisy?” 

“No, no, we’re not going to be learning today,” Daisy told her, pulling a bowl of popcorn onto her lap and one of the blankets to cover them both. 

Alya’s little forehead crinkled as she thought about that, twisting the blanket beneath her fingers. “But then why are we watching it?” 

Daisy just smiled. “You’ll see,” she promised, hitting _Play._

And Alya did. Though her frown remained for most of the ice song, it was decidedly starting to fade by the time they got to Olaf and the sisters’ song. 

It was completely gone when they had reached _Let It Go -_ in fact, the little girl was enraptured, staring at the screen with her jaw slack, her popcorn completely forgotten as she watched, amazed, while Elsa sang her triumph to the wintry night. 

When they finished the movie, she turned to Daisy with one request in her wonder-struck eyes: _“Again.”_

And so they played the movie again, and again, and by the third repeat, Alya knew all the words to all the songs. By the fourth and fifth repeats, she and Daisy had developed a song and dance routine for every part of the musical, which in her maybe-a-little-biased opinion was better than anything that had ever played at the Oscars.

By the sixth repeat (after the dinner that, in true organised Jemma style, had been left in the fridge for them with clear, methodical instructions pinned to it) Alya was starting to yawn even as she gamely sang along to every lyric, and by the seventh repeat, her eyes were starting to droop. 

She snuggled up against Daisy, pillowing her little head on Daisy’s lap, and Daisy instinctively pulled her close, lowering her own body until she was stretched out next to the little girl.

She felt… she wished that she could take time and hit _Pause_ on it right there, because honestly, this moment was one of the most perfect ones she had ever gotten to experience.

It wasn’t even a very overstated moment, or a hugely-dramatic reunion at the end of a battle to decide the fate of the world - no, it was just a quiet moment; a tiny, blue-eyed little girl resting her sleepy blond head on Daisy’s leg with instant, infinite love and trust.

And Daisy might have heard the Frozen soundtrack _way_ too many times today, even for her Disney-extraordinaire tastes - but she had to agree with Olaf’s point, some people were worth melting for.

(Or… worth rewatching the same movie seven times for, whatever the case might be.) 

The point was: Alya Fitz-Simmons honestly had her entire heart in the palm of her little hand, and nothing in the _world_ could have persuaded her to move away just then, and give up this soft, tender affection that had spread its warm, golden-y tingles throughout her entire body.

Lying there, she hoped that Fitz and Jemma’s day had gone well, because hers had been nothing short of _spectacular_. 

//

Fitz, romantic that he was, had set up one of the most incredible days of their entire _lives_ for the two of them - first, they had a proper, slap-up breakfast at the Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire. (Jemma had thought she had tasted good eggs benedict before, but these put them all to shame - just, _bloody hell,_ that was good.) 

Next, they had driven up to Pitlochry and spent the rest of the morning (and a good deal of the afternoon) walking hand in hand around the visitor centre’s luxuriant gardens and admiring the suitably spectacular Queen’s View. Jemma had had the foresight of packing them a picnic lunch, and she honestly didn’t think anything had ever tasted better than ham and cheese sandwiches eaten off Fitz’s lap with the two of them sprawled out on the grass, pointing out monkeys in the clouds. 

And finally, they had ended their day with a tour and a lengthy tasting ceremony at Cairn O’Mohr Fruit Wines (Jemma genuinely hadn’t realised that there were so many ways to infuse wines, and they all tasted _that good.)_ It might have had something to do with the fresh mountain air, it might have had something to do with the glasses of wine she had consumed in said fresh mountain air, and it _definitely_ had something to do with the warm glow in Fitz’s eyes whenever he looked at her - but when they sat down in the winery’s low-lit, romantic on-site restaurant, Jemma felt as though her cup was overflowing with happiness.

It had just felt so _incredibly good_ to let go of the inherent worries and stresses of parenting, and just relax and spoil herself and Fitz for a day.

And _what_ a day - because romantic as it had been, the most special part of it by far had been that it was _Fitz._ Fitz, with her, the two of them being there and being together and being so effortlessly _happy…_ she still felt residual tickles of deep, utterly contented love sparkling up and down her spine. 

Leaning forward, and settling her elbows between a scattering of rose petals and two scented candles, Jemma tilted her head and smiled at Fitz, long and slow. 

“I really, really love you, you know that, right?” she asked, reaching forward to trace the curve of his cheek. “Curses or no.” 

He brought one hand up to his face, gently covering her hand in his and cradling her palm. “I know,” he replied, and she didn’t think any dictionary had the words to do the sheer amount of love in his gaze justice. “I love you too, more than anything this universe has ever or will ever throw at us.” 

She couldn’t help her smile at that, bright and beaming, and so full of sheer, infectious joy that Fitz had to smile.

“I’m really glad we did this,” she told him tenderly, tracing gentle circles against his cheek with her thumb.

He squeezed her hand, gently shifting it so he could kiss her fingers, feather-light but full of a lingering affection. “Me too.”

And then, as though on a silent signal, or an unspoken mutual understanding, they both leaned forward, meeting in the middle in a languorous, unhurried kiss. 

It was one of those warm, slow, tender moments that rom-coms could only ever _wish_ they got right - really, Jemma thought, only _they_ could get it properly right. It was their Fitz-Simmons psychic connection upgraded to a whole new level, because instead of merely reading each other’s minds, they were reading each other’s _hearts._

And their hearts had never been more in agreement: this, right here, was everything.

Every tortured step, every space-time tearing obstacle, every storm they had weathered to get to this point - they just didn’t _matter_ anymore.

They had each other, and they had this moment, and that was _more_ than enough.

And yes, real life, and pressures, and parenting would come calling again - but for now, they were each other’s centres, each other’s event horizons.

If Alya was their star, Jemma thought suddenly, then she and Fitz were each other’s _skies._ Unstoppable, unlimited, forever. 

No matter how long it was till they could do this again, that would always be true.

And much later that night, as they arrived back home hand-in-hand, that deeply, truly _satisfied,_ love-isn’t-a-strong-enough-word-to-describe-this feeling was still filling her up from head to toe.

They pushed open the door together, and they both had to smile at what they saw there. 

Daisy and Alya were both passed out fast asleep on the couch, covered in a tremendous mound of blankets and pillows that appeared to be the failed results of a pillow fort. Alya’s blond head was nestled against Daisy’s stomach, and Daisy had one arm arched protectively over the little girl’s back, as though threatening that anyone who _dared_ hurt her would suffer the consequences even if she herself was asleep.

They both had smiles on their faces, the kind of sleepy, natural smiles that people could only get when they had been smiling for the entirety of the day.

And Jemma knew, then, that this break had done them all _wonders._

Because, yes, they were deliriously happy together as a family - but tempers and patience could and did fray, and sometimes you just needed some time away, or some time with someone else, to let that love and contentment pour back into you. 

That was exactly what had happened with them all - even Daisy, Jemma thought, had been overwhelmingly positively affected by the break in her normal routine, much as it _did_ suit her.

That was just the thing, wasn’t it? Sometimes people just needed to take breaks. 

Because the effects of those breaks, well… looking at the smiles on her daughter and best friend’s faces, and feeling the glow of contented happiness still settled warmly in her heart, she thought that maybe sometimes your step in the right direction needed to be a tiny step _away,_ just so that the eventual step back would feel that much more rewarding, and special.

And ultimately, that was what family was, wasn’t it? Rewarding and special, stars and skies, biochem and engineering, love persevering. 

_This,_ right here - this return, this love - was what they had been fighting for, all along. 

_**The End.** _


End file.
